Jiangyin, known as Jiyang in ancient times, belongs to Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, in the land of the rich Jiangnan, and has been a fortress of Jiangfang for generations. According to archaeological records, Jiangyin has a history dating back to 7,000 years ago, is one of the birthplaces of Wu culture, and the profound cultural accumulation has given the place a rich historical gift, and under this land of nearly 1,000 square kilometers, there are many unknown treasures.
After the reform and opening up, Jiangyin's economy has developed rapidly, known as the first county in China's manufacturing industry, Huaxi Village from here, famous throughout the country. With the prosperity of the economy, some lawbreakers and criminals have set their sights on the illegal resale of cultural relics.
A construction team that accidentally excavated ancient cultural relics due to real estate development accidentally broke into the underground world again, which triggered a case of extraordinarily large theft and resale of cultural relics, which was excavated from the tombs of prominent people in the two Song Dynasties, sold all the way to Jiangxi through Jiangsu, and finally intercepted by the police.
A few days ago, this extraordinarily large case of excavation and resale of cultural relics listed and supervised by the Ministry of Public Security was broken. According to a press conference held by the Ministry of Public Security on December 13, as of now, more than 1,100 pieces of various cultural relics such as porcelain, lacquered wood, gold and silverware have been recovered in the case, involving 2 first-class cultural relics, 13 second-class cultural relics, and 49 third-class cultural relics, and 58 criminal suspects have been arrested.
Nandu reporter learned that this is also the largest number of arrests in Jiangsu Province in recent years, the highest level of seized cultural relics, and the largest number of cultural relics.
The police recovered cultural relics, various kinds of porcelain.
The police recovered cultural relics, various wooden figurines.
Night rush to Jiangxi to sell cultural relics to make a million profits
Back a year ago, on the evening of December 13, 2020, Tang Renguo (pseudonym) and his friend Zhou Lin (pseudonym) were waiting for a taxi that would carry them overnight to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. In Tang Renguo's hand, it was an antique treasure that had just been received from the seller a few hours ago.
Tang Renguo, who has been doing antique business in Jiangyin for a long time, has studied cultural relics, and after his preliminary identification, there are two exquisite porcelains from the Longquan kiln of the Song Dynasty, blue glazed bristle furnace, blue glazed bafang cup crystal clear, exquisite design, and a batch of lacquerware, copper bowls and other objects. Among these treasures, two pieces of celadon from Longquan kiln are the most precious, Longquan kiln has always been famous for firing celadon porcelain, and the five famous kilns of Ru kiln, official kiln, Ge kiln, Jun kiln and Ding kiln are the longest porcelain kiln system in the history of Chinese porcelain.
Song Dynasty porcelain recovered by the police.
Tang Renguo is a veteran of playing with cultural relics in Jiangyin, and this late night rush to Jiangxi is to sell the batch of cultural relics in his hand for a good price. "After negotiating a buyer, you can buy several cars like yours." Tang Renguo proudly told the driver that five hundred kilometers away, the buyer Zhao Fengde (pseudonym) was waiting for this batch of cultural relics that had been "palmed eyes" in weChat through photos.
This journey lasted nearly 6 hours, Tang Renguo's hard work was not in vain, only the Bafang Cup sold for 400,000 yuan, plus a batch of lacquerware, copper bowls, rouge lid bowls in his hand, a total profit of more than 1.6 million. The resale of cultural relics made Tang Renguo very profitable, and Tang Renguo, who has always lived in luxury and luxury, bought a luxury car the following month. To Tang Renguo's surprise, the news that someone went to Jiangxi late at night to sell Longquan kiln porcelain reached the ears of the police.
Real estate developers accidentally excavated ancient tombs
On the outskirts of Jiangyin, buildings have risen under the acceleration of urban construction, and the large areas of land circled here are a real estate project that Jiangyin is about to launch.
One day a month ago, the excavator master Lin Fei (pseudonym) was working at the construction site as usual, digging half of the foundation but accidentally digging a coffin, in Lin Fei's memory, it is no different from today's ordinary coffin, the manager asked to remove the coffin to continue construction. Just as Lin Fei moved the coffin, there were some objects around the coffin that he had never seen before, and the surrounding workers heard about it, and some people said that these things could be "worth hundreds of pieces."
Lin Fei was originally from Guizhou, two years ago came to Jiangsu to plot errands, he heard that digging up treasures at the construction site is not a new thing in Jiangyin, some excavator masters usually even have special cultural relics exchange groups to provide clues to each other to sell the treasures they dug. Lin Fei's cousin Lin Peng (pseudonym) worked at the construction site together, and two other acquaintances of the workers heard the news and came to see it, they simply opened the coffin: eight square cups, powder boxes, furnaces, lacquerware, copper coins, a large number of cultural relics hidden in the depths of the coffin reappeared, four people in total, this batch of things can sell some money, in order to ensure the safety of the treasure, cousin Lin Peng also specially rented a house to store cultural relics.
The Song Dynasty porcelain Bafang Cup recovered by the police.
Near the end of the year, they urgently need to find a buyer to shoot, someone specially took photos of these treasures and sent them to the WeChat group, the information in the Internet world is always the fastest transmission, Jiangyin cultural relics circle soon learned that a construction team dug out the treasure, the buyer quickly through the middleman to find the door, including Jiangyin open antique shop owner Tang Renguo.
The police pursued the celadon and led to the case
Real estate development dug up a batch of ancient cultural relics, but this batch of cultural relics are missing, but Tang Renguo went to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province overnight to sell a batch of treasures, which attracted the attention of the Jiangyin police, and specially invited cultural relics experts to join the special case team.
According to the preliminary judgment of Diao Wenwei, a member of the special case team and an associate researcher at the Jiangyin City Museum, the owner of the stolen tomb was at least a figure of the rank of scholar or doctor in the Song Dynasty, especially the two pieces of porcelain that were stolen and excavated, the Longquan kiln blue glaze bristle furnace, the green glazed octagonal cup, and the nine lacquerware, which are extremely precious cultural relics.
Engaged in field archaeology for more than thirty years, Diao Wenwei has never seen such a complete porcelain produced at the kiln site of the Song Dynasty, "In the Song Dynasty, this is a very precious porcelain, most likely an object used in tribute to the royal family." Diao Wenwei was very excited, he speculated that the production time of these two Pieces of Longquan Kiln porcelain was about the late Northern Song Dynasty, "Scholars generally believe that the Longquan Kiln is the Southern Song Dynasty, and the excavation of these two pieces of porcelain means that the Longquan Guan Kiln may have appeared during the Northern Song Dynasty." ”
The value of major cultural relics made the Jiangyin police eye Tang Renguo. In recent years, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage have deployed special operations to combat cultural relics crimes. Under the posture of cracking down hard, Tang Renguo decided to stay still first, and he even released news to the outside world that he would no longer do cultural relics trading in the near future. In order to dispel the police's suspicions about himself, in February this year, Tang Renguo also donated the epitaph of Liu Huan, a local celebrity from the Northern Song Dynasty, to the Jiangyin City Museum on the pretext of promoting the development of Jiangyin culture.
Tang Renguo's vigilance, let the police investigation fall into a dilemma for a while, in March this year, a person named Yang Jie (pseudonym) appeared in the police field of vision, Yang Jie is a post-90s, the family is solid, when he was young, he loved antiques, opened an antique shop in Jiangyin City, is An old friend of Tang Renguo. In the process of investigation, the police found that Yang Jie's circle of friends hid a larger network of cultural relics trading, and even led out a series of cases involving more than a thousand cultural relics, of which the silver ingots of the famous Zhang Xianzhong Jiangkou Sinking Silver Case were also sold.
The police recovered cultural relics, various silver ingots.
Folk legend has always spread that in the Minjiang River channel of The Town of Meishan Jiangkou in Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong, the leader of the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty, sank a thousand boats of gold and silver at the bottom of the river when he fled. Police investigation found that Yang Jie's friend Zhao Xidong (pseudonym) illegally purchased 16 silver ingots from the Sichuan Cultural Relics Circle, resold 3 ingots, and hid another 13 ingots in the family's vegetable garden.
After the arrest of Yang Jie and others, according to Gao Yuchao, a police officer of the criminal police brigade of the Jiangyin City Public Security Bureau, the number of cultural relics hidden in Yang Jie's home was huge, and even could be transported by truck, and the safe contained various types of unearthed headdresses, as well as a series of burial items, burial artifacts and other cultural relics.
According to Yang Jie (pseudonym), the sale of underground cultural relics has become an industrial chain, among which there are not only experienced people who identify cultural relics, professional treasure hunters who purchase metal detectors and excavator drivers to explore treasures, and intermediaries who introduce business, "Cultural relics with low value will be sold on the Internet, and good quality will find people with good quality to find offline transactions." ”
Before the suspect was arrested, he lost thirty pounds and suffered from depression
In May 2021, Tang Renguo, who was suspected of illegally trafficking in cultural relics, was arrested by the police at his home, and Tang Renguo has been waiting for this moment for a long time. As early as a month ago, Yang Jie was arrested, and Tang Renguo fell into a daily panic of fear. Gao Yuchao, a police officer of the criminal police brigade of the Jiangyin City Public Security Bureau, told Nandu that Tang Renguo had lost 30 pounds in just one month and said that he needed to take drugs to treat depression to survive.
Like most antiques players, Tang Ren's country has a large number of cultural relics stored. According to the police inventory, it includes dishes from the Ming Dynasty, pottery from the Liangzhu culture period, and 30 or 40 precious pieces of porcelain and pottery.
Nandu reporters concerned that according to the provisions of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics", ancient cultural sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, cave temples, stone carvings and murals with historical, artistic and scientific value are protected by the state, belong to the state, and the cultural relics buried underground are not allowed to be excavated by any unit or individual. Gao Yuchao, a police officer of the criminal police brigade of the Jiangyin City Public Security Bureau, reminded that especially the excavated cultural relics, it is absolutely not allowed to be bought and sold, otherwise it will be punished by law.
In recent years, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration of Cultural Relics have successively organized special actions to combat cultural relics crimes, and the incidence of crimes of excavation and theft of cultural relics has decreased year by year. On August 31 last year, the Ministry of Public Security, together with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, organized a new round of national special operations to crack down on cultural relics crimes, focusing on cracking down on illegal and criminal activities such as the illegal excavation of ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs, the theft of grotto temple stone carvings, the theft of ancient buildings, the theft and destruction of revolutionary cultural relics, and other illegal and criminal activities. The number of cultural relics recovered exceeded the sum of the previous three special operations.
In order to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes and curb illegal cultural relics trade, in May 2016, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration of Cultural Relics jointly built the "China Stolen (Lost) Cultural Relics Information Release Platform", Zheng Xiang said, at present, the platform has summarized and collected more than 2,800 pieces of stolen (lost) cultural relics data, has publicly released 626 pieces of information on stolen and lost cultural relics to the public, coordinated with the Interpol stolen art database to release 136 pieces of stolen cultural relics information, and accepted a large number of clues to cultural relics crimes reported by the public.
Men Jintao, director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Bureau, once told Nandu reporters that the information release platform for stolen (lost) cultural relics in China will specify the size, age, and shape information of the stolen (lost) cultural relics. He believes that the public should collect cultural relics through legal channels, "When auction houses around the world auction antiques, buyers should search the website for stolen cultural relics when they are ready to buy cultural relics." ”
Zheng Xiang also reminded the public at the press conference of the Ministry of Public Security that more attention should be paid to the information release platform of stolen (lost) cultural relics in China, actively provide clues to cultural relics crimes, work with the police to combat cultural relics crimes, and guard the security of national cultural relics.
Nandu reporter Jiang Xiaotian sent from Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province